Mikel Maria Delgado

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Friday Faves November 14, 2014 – Feline Edition

Watching cats play for science

Can the movements of cats and athletes help scientists improve how robots land from a fall? Yes. Read more here! Plus gratuitous cute cat video (no cats were harmed).

A new gadget for your cat

At first I was a little skeptical of this new product, but given how much data I like to collect on myself, I am intrigued by the possibilities of getting data on my cats. This scale goes under your litterbox, and can track elimination patterns in your cat, including how much waste they are producing and how frequently they visit the litterbox. The Tailio can also weigh your cat! Why? To monitor changes that could be related to your cat's health (and to tell you when the litterbox is dirty). The only downside, if you have multiple litterboxes, as any cat behaviorist worth their salt will, you need multiple Tailios. Pretty cool kickstarter campaign!

How felines went from ferocious to friendly

The new study explaining how cats' genes were changed during domestication was all over the news this week. Key findings - the few genes that are different are related to memory, aggression, and response to rewards. Read more about the findings here and here.